C18
"More than anything, why am I your ex-husband? I am Ethel's husband."
"Oh, excuse me. You told me earlier that you were going to get a divorce soon."
"You...!"
The atmosphere grew tense.
"Tay, don't start a fight. If the conversation goes on too long, I get tired."
I stopped Terence halfway and faced Leandro.
"If you have something to say, say it quickly."
Leandro asked me, looking at Terence.
"Does being an escort mean he always stays by my wife's side?"
"That's how it is when I'm out."
Otherwise, how would an escort be?
"How can you do that?!"
A wave of surprise spread across Leandro's face.
"No matter how much you want to divorce me, you are a married woman until you get divorced."
"I know. But what does that have to do with this?"
"How can someone who has a husband spend so much time with a man who is not married to her? What if others misunderstand?"
Yes. I thought it would be a story like this.
"What's wrong with that?"
"...Do I really need to say such vulgar things out of my mouth?"
"You have to tell me for me to understand."
Although he was the one who actually spoke, Leandro stammered his response.
"That... Doubting my wife's modesty..."
As if he didn't even want to voice those thoughts.
"Oh, you mean leaving my husband and having an affair with another man?"
"Wife...!"
"That's what you mean. Don't pretend you don't believe that."
Leandro hurriedly denied it.
"No. I trust my wife. It's others..."
What do you mean by trusting me?
If you openly doubt me, I will be very angry, so you're just making excuses.
"I only need you, my husband, to trust me, okay? I don't care what others think."
"What if my wife's reputation goes down?"
"I'll take care of my reputation."
And.
"Leandro, I didn't suspect you, so there's no way you would suspect something like this, right?"
Leandro didn't understand immediately.
"What do you mean? I've never done anything suspicious."
Instead of answering his question, I looked around.
"So, Chris didn't come with you?"
Chris is Leandro's secretary.
Leandro, who bore the heavy burden as the lord's representative, was always accompanied by Chris when he came to the capital to visit his family.
"Chris is doing business at the mansion. But why are you suddenly mentioning Chris...?"
"What is Chris's gender?"
"....?"
Leandro responded, wondering why I was asking such a thing.
"She's a woman."
"That's right. She's a woman."
Yes. Although "Chris" is usually a name given to men, Leandro's secretary is a woman.
Chris, whom Leandro always takes with him and spends more time with than his wife, is a woman.
Leandro, who realized a bit late what I meant, jumped up.
"Do you really doubt Chris and me?"
"No. I have no doubts. I just..."
I simply raised a corner of my mouth and smiled.
"You and Chris are like that, do you really think people won't misunderstand?"
"Is this case the same as my wife's?"
"What's the difference?"
"Chris and I have a strictly professional relationship."
"Our relationship is strictly professional. This person's job is to escort me."
At that moment, for some reason, Terence's shoulders next to me trembled.
However, there was no time to pay attention to Leandro as he continued to argue.
"We're just working!"
"I'm just doing my job, and this guy is simply following me!"
In fact, I knew better than Leandro and Chris had nothing to do with each other.
Because that's what the novel says.
But I still found it hard to welcome the relationship between Leandro and Chris.
Honestly, it was a bit uncomfortable.
I may see my husband for ten minutes a day or not at all, but the other woman spends the entire day with him.
Aside from suspecting infidelity, how many wives would like this?
One day, when I talked to him about it and asked him carefully to spend more time with me, Leandro's response was spectacular.
"Can't you understand that for someone who comes back from working outside?"
After that, I never asked Leandro for such a favor again.
The sadness, humiliation, and loneliness I felt at that time turned into a storm and swirled inside me.
"I told you before. Please dedicate at least half the time you spend with Chris to me."
My breath became agitated due to overwhelming emotions.
To calm down, I consciously tried to keep my attention in the present and not in the past.
"You answered. 'Can't you understand that for someone who comes back from working outside?'"
"Well, I was so tired back then that I made a mistake...!"
Leandro tried to make an excuse.
He had a desperate expression on his face that he never showed until I asked for a divorce.
Unlike in the past when he used to treat me with a stiff or tired expression.
The past is the past, the present is the present.
Things have changed. Because I have changed.
I breathed slowly and deeply. The emotional vortex begins to lose strength and calm down.
"It's different from before."
Yes, there was no reason to remain buried in old feelings. There was no reason to be immersed in helplessness disguised under the name of maturity.
Now, no action or word from Leandro and his family hurts me.
"That's right."
Finally, my mind regained its calm.
"I don't even understand much. So let's stop."
Leandro shouted.
"I'm going to change!"
"I can't believe it."
"How can I make you believe me?"
"Nothing."
"What if I give up the mine?"
When I heard this, I was a little surprised, though I didn't show it.
"You're going to give up the mine? Then why are you doing this? What else is there but a mine?"
However, my surprise didn't last long because of what followed immediately.
"If you wish, I swear I will never touch the mine. I swear it on Liena's name."
My heart froze.
Oh, just save it. Can't you even swear without Liena?
Indeed, limited to the Cassius family and their followers, this was an oath that promised the highest level of trust.
In the Empire, there is a custom of making important oaths in the name of great beings to signify that they will never be broken.
Usually, the target is the emperor or the goddess, but for them, Liena was higher than both.
"You can't even swear that you'll give up Liena for the rest of your life."
When I dismissed it, the response was absurd.
"Give up Liena? Does this mean we should live without interacting? It's a ridiculous joke."
It seemed he couldn't even imagine that I was serious.
"Ah, fine. I'm tired of talking."
And honestly.
"Even if, by chance, you really give up the mine and are reborn as the man I like, my feelings won't change. I won't love you."
I expressed sincerely.
"Then, I hope you let go of me like this and live with the little sister you love so much for the rest of your life. Don't make life difficult for any woman by remarrying without any reason."
I turned around, leaving Leandro behind.
"Wife..."
He seemed disheveled, unlike when he first arrived.
It wasn't just the discarded bouquet, the tangled hair, and the dirty knees from the fall.
The hope that had shone in Leandro was missing.
The hope that I would come back.
I can't even imagine why he had so much hope about a crappy public apology as a solution.
"Come on, Tay."
I had no curiosity, and I didn't want to know. The true meaning of what he said about giving up the mine for me is also the same.
So, what do you want me to do?
Terence picked up the tray he had left roughly on the floor and made an elegant gesture as if he were escorting me.
"Of course. Please, go ahead."
I'll go my own way.
------------------------------
Unfortunately, I didn't feel like having tea in a hotel where Leandro hadn't left yet.
We set aside our original plan and had tea at our favorite tea house, as usual.
I had mixed feelings.
Terence's existence had been exposed to Leandro. Naturally, it will also reach Liena's ears.
It would be good to think of him as a simple ordinary escort, but we can't ignore the possibility that they might smell something and try to find out his identity.
It's an advantage for me that they let their guard down, believing that divorce is absolutely impossible.
Wouldn't that be a way to strike a blow to the other person who might not be taking the right measures?
"I need to contact Tara to find out what's going on there."
If necessary, we should alter the information.
I ordered my thoughts brusquely and turned my attention to Terence. But for some reason, he had a complex expression in his own way.
I was scared. I don't think it's a headache.
"Did Leandro offend you?"
Maybe he was thinking it was my fault that he had gotten involved with the Cassius family and complicated things.
I cautiously mentioned the previous incident.
"I'm sorry. My husband was a bit like that, wasn't he? He just didn't want to deal with it..."
A shadow fell over Terence's expression.
"Ex-husband."
However, he soon showed a polite smile as if he had never done that before.
"You should call him an ex-husband."
Huh? Is that an issue? As he said, he's still my husband since we're not divorced yet.
I didn't express such doubts and willingly accepted his request.
"Yes, ex-husband. I worry that my ex-husband got angry arguing with Tay. Which..."
It was quite embarrassing.
"I will also apologize on his behalf for suspecting that we have an illicit relationship. I'm very sorry."
It was extremely rude of him to turn a normal person into someone else's mistress.
It was Leandro who created this mess, so why am I the one cleaning it up?
A smile like a ray of light returned to me, who was complaining about the unreasonable reality.
"It's okay. I wasn't offended at all."
It was as if there was an illusion of a halo shining behind him.
This person...
Isn't his personality very pleasant?
They clearly said he was a villain.
Due to his very kind face and pitiable expression, I made a somewhat hasty judgment.
"Well, his personality is good."
The twisted corner is only the result of the unfortunate environment in which he grew up, and he was a good person before turning dark.
From what I've seen from the sidelines, he has never been hostile to anyone except for the assassin who tried to kill him and Tara, who was following us.
Turning dark is very scary.